Experimental measurement of flow distribution in a parallel mini-channel fluidic network using PIV technique

Fluid flow distribution among parallel channels usually plays an important role on the global performance improvement of tubular process equipment, but remains difficult to be properly measured by experimental methods. This paper presents a systematic study on the measurement of flow distribution in a multi-channel fluidic network using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. For the precise measurement of flow-rate in each individual channel, standard 2 dimensions, 2 components PIV technique is used to obtain velocity vectors on multiple sampling planes parallel to the flow direction, so as to reconstruct accurate velocity profiles on the cross-sectional surface. Such procedure is repeated for every micro- (mini-) channel to obtain the actual flow distribution properties in the fluidic network. Pre-test results on a double-channel device indicate that the maximum possible deviation of PIV measurements is 13.1% with respect to those of a flange flowmeter, implying that the PIV technique is relatively accurate and reliable. PIV results on the flow distribution in a 15-channel fluidic network are then compared with Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation results under the same working conditions. A quite good agreement could be observed. Moreover, the locations and sizes of vortices in the distributor have a significant influence on the flow distribution. (c) 2016 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.